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"Mighty Mother": Pope and the maternal.(Critical essay)
From:
Studies in the Literary Imagination
| Date:
March 22, 2005| Author:
Spencer, Jane
| COPYRIGHT 2005 Georgia State University Department of English. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group.Copyright information
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Pope's love for his mother is legendary. Horace Walpole remarked in 1750 that the poet's friend Joseph Spence "fondles an old mother in imitation of Pope" (qtd. in Spence 1: 182). Edith Pope lived with her son and was well-known and well-liked by his friends. His letters to her, especially those written to her in her later years, are full of concern for her health and well-being. After his father's death, when he was encouraged by Francis Atterbury, dean of Westminster, to convert ...